-By The Heritage Foundation
Citing opposition to NAFTA from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the run-up to Ohio’s Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) pleaded with Wall Street Journal readers yesterday not “to play bumper-sticker politics with trade” and instead engage in “a real debate.” If the rest of his op-ed represents all the arguments he has against current U.S. trade policy, then it’s going to be a short debate.
Brown first raises concerns over rising trade deficits, specifically mentioning the growth of our trade deficit with Mexico since 1993. What Brown fails to mention is that 95 percent of the increase in our NAFTA deficit since 2000 is due to increased energy imports. If Brown really were concerned about these deficits ,he would support expanding domestic energy production in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The more energy we produce domestically, the less we need to import. But Brown is opposed to almost all efforts to increase domestic energy supplies.
Next, Brown raises the specter of sovereign wealth funds, intoning: “five governments control more than $2 trillion that they use to buy stocks and other assets in America and other countries. So far, the funds controlled by the People’s Republic of China and the United Arab Emirates have been passive investors. So far.”
What the freshman Ohio senator fails to realize is that America benefits from investment abroad. The U.S. has run a trade deficit for most of its history and the record shows that unemployment generally drops as trade deficits rise. This is because trade deficits are offset by investment surpluses from abroad. These investments create jobs and wealth for Americans.
Continue reading “A Democrat Against Our Allies”